Featured Interview With Deborah Poulos
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I was born in Berkeley, CA, on May 6, 1945, the day the German generals surrendered to Eisenhower in Europe. Two days later was Victory in Europe Day, officially announcing the end of WW II. The
running line in my family was, “When Debbie was born the Germans surrendered!”
I grew up mostly in San Diego, where my dad was a chemistry professor at San Diego State. Just before my junior year of high school, he was appointed founding president of Sonoma State College in Sonoma County, CA. I went on the UC Davis, in ‘63, where I earned a degree in
English and an elementary teaching credential.
I returned to Davis in 1973, where I taught mostly intermediate
grades, including 8 years in a fourth-grade self-contained gifted class, for
most of my 27 years.
I retired in 2000 due to a diagnosis of PLS, primary lateral sclerosis,
an impairment of the voluntary muscles. It had already reduced my
ability to walk, and I wanted to have time to travel with my husband
before it progressed. In 2006 I was diagnosed with ALS, Lou Gehrig’s’
disease. It usually progresses very fast to death, by suffocation when the
diaphragm muscle stops working on the lungs, but for me, it has been a
very slow progression. Even though I’ve been in a power wheelchair 24/7
since 2013, I am still enjoying living a full and rich life. I focus on what I
can do, not bemoaning what I can’t do.
I have two children with my first husband who I divorced when they
were 3 and 4. I met my husband, John Poulos, a law professor at UC
Davis law school, when I ran for a seat on the Davis City Council in 1984.
He saw my photo in the paper with the information about my views on
issues and said he fell in love with me then. We met in December of that
year and were married the following summer. I won that election with
the most votes.
I had always been a visual/spatial learner, designing houses as a
child. In 1981, during summer break from school, I was the designer and
general contractor to build my own house in Village Homes, a solar community in Davis. After John and I were married I designed and was the general contractor for another home in Davis.
In 2006, in order to make our small cabin at Alpine Meadows, in the
ski country of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, accessible for me in my
power wheelchair, I designed and generally contracted, with my husband,
an expansion. I was very satisfied with these experiences designing and
building homes.
When I retired I took up making quilts. I had been a sewer since I’d
taken a Singer sewing class in the summer after sixth grade. I used to
sew most of my wardrobe. I’d always been interested in the designs and
colors of the fabrics I used.
I was using these interests to design and make quilts. In the last 20 years I’ve made well over 250 quilts from twin to king size. As my ability to use the sewing machine declined, I began to make a simple half-square triangle quilts arranged in a spiral or maze-like design. Now I have friends who make the blocks, following my directions. I choose all the fabrics, arrange all the pairings, and design them for the quilt top. I send them off to a quilter who sews all the blocks together and does the quilting. I’ve had many quilts shows where I sell the quilts to support residents of my senior living community who need help. We live at University Retirement Community in Davis.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I had struggled to learn to read all through elementary school. In first grade, just a few weeks after school started, we moved to Oak Ridge, Tennessee, where my dad was going to work for a year at the National Labs there. They hadn’t started teaching reading in San Diego, but here they were already reading from The Big Red Storybook, propped on an easel in front of each little group sitting on the floor in a line, like birds on a wire.
When it was my turn I failed miserably. This experience happened over and over again. I didn’t learn to read in the 1 st, 2 nd, or 3 rd grade. For the rest of elementary school, we didn’t have to read aloud in a group. I could only read the words that I memorized, but there were so many other words that
I couldn’t memorize. I didn’t know what it meant to “sound out” words.
No one had ever really explained it in a way I could understand.
Eventually, after failing so much, I adopted an “avoidance strategy”
just to protect me from trying and failing all the time. I never tried to
read when I returned to my desk from the reading group.
My avoidance strategy was successful until the beginning of my 7th grade English class when the teacher brought in Time Magazine and gave everyone the same copy. He said, “Everybody is going to read a paragraph or two, and we’re going to talk about what it means.” I thought, “Oh my gosh I’m going to be found out as a failure in front of all these potential new friends.” Of course, I sat in the back of the class because I wanted to hide. So, I listened intently to every word I heard and
saw. And so, as they came closer to me, I had a chance to figure out which paragraphs were going to be mine, and I practiced over and over.
When it came to my time, I read the paragraphs as if it were no big deal. It sounds crazy, but it made me realize: I could learn to read. From there, I worked at it instead of avoiding it. I was never a fast reader; I was a plodding reader, but I worked hard and became an excellent student. So I wasn’t a reader on my own until after college. It is ironic that I’d been an English major in college. So I wasn’t your typical avid reader.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I don’t have any favorite authors right now. I read bong until after college. I read fiction and non-fiction. I like novels based on real life.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
THE CONSCIOUS TEACHER is an up-close and personal
look at how a truly conscious teacher can help all students reach their
full potentials.
I describe how I get to know students by reading through each cumulative record file before the first day of school. I learn about any issues they have with learning, their family situations, and their report
cards from earlier years. I memorize their names with their photos so that I can welcome each one by name on the first day of school. They look up at me w/ eyes wide open and I imagine they’re thinking,
“Whoa. She already knows me.” This is a powerful tool that tells each student that I think they are important.
I organize a seating chart that puts students who need help next to students who can help them. I put students with behavior issues near the front of the class next to well-behaved students who
can buffer them. Students create a behavior management system with consequences if standards are not met, and they sign it.
I set up a silent signal so that when a student misbehaves they take a time-out outside the classroom, coming back in when they are in control of their behavior. In this way, I don’t reward bad behavior
with attention. The only way to extinguish bad behavior is to not give it
attention. I meet each student at his or her level so that I can nurture learning. Students who are working below grade level must be met at their level in order to be pulled up to grade level. Students who can do above grade level work must be pushed to achieve at their level so that they become comfortable with being challenged. I teach students the “five finger rule” so they can choose books at their reading level.
The whole class operates as a team. And I treat all students with dignity and respect no matter what.
All of these basic steps are so important to creating a classroom that works for every child.
The subtitle is, “What all teachers and engaged parents need to know to be more effective.” Almost every chapter has notes directed to parents. In this time of Covid-19, The Conscious Teacher is a “must-have” for parents. With the importance of staying calm, putting the child in charge, behavior standards, meeting each child at her level, creating self-motivation, individualizing and differentiating, and ideas on subject area teaching, parents will be glad to have their help and support.
Truly effective teaching, and parenting, is an ongoing process of actively thinking about what is best for each child (and working with each one to bring out his/her full potential),. Continuously thinking about and improving upon your strategies is a constant work in progress that calls for consciously observing, and applying, what works best.
As I detailed above, I tell my personal story revealing how my early struggles learning to read and do math led to becoming the teacher I illustrate in the book. I offer everything to help both teachers and parents to do the same.
The detailed Table of Contents provides a roadmap to all the information in the book. I taught most of my career in Davis, California. I’m excited to share my new book with teachers and parents.
Connect with the Author on their Websites and Social media profiles